Soon
we hope to have hearings on the pending war with Iraq. I am concerned
there are some questions that won’t be asked  and maybe will
not even be allowed to be asked. Here are some questions I would
like answered by those who are urging us to start this war.

1.
Is it not true that the reason we did not bomb the Soviet Union at
the height of the Cold War was because we knew they could retaliate?

2.
Is it not also true that we are willing to bomb Iraq now because we
know it cannot retaliate  which just confirms that there
is no real threat?

3.
Is it not true that those who argue that even with inspections
we cannot be sure that Hussein might be hiding weapons, at the same
time imply that we can be more sure that weapons exist in the absence
of inspections?

4.
Is it not true that the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency was
able to complete its yearly verification mission to Iraq just this
year with Iraqi cooperation?

5.
Is it not true that the intelligence community has been unable to
develop a case tying Iraq to global terrorism at all, much less the
attacks on the United States last year? Does anyone remember that
15 of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia and that none came from
Iraq?

6.
Was former CIA counter-terrorism chief Vincent Cannistraro wrong when
he recently said there is no confirmed evidence of Iraq’s links to
terrorism?

7.
Is it not true that the CIA has concluded there is no evidence that
a Prague meeting between 9/11 hijacker Atta and Iraqi intelligence
took place?

8.
Is it not true that northern Iraq, where the administration claimed
al-Qaeda were hiding out, is in the control of our "allies,"
the Kurds?

9.
Is it not true that the vast majority of al-Qaeda leaders who escaped
appear to have safely made their way to Pakistan, another of our so-called
allies?

10.
Has anyone noticed that Afghanistan is rapidly sinking into total
chaos, with bombings and assassinations becoming daily occurrences;
and that according to a recent UN report al-Qaeda "is, by all
accounts, alive and well and poised to strike again, how, when, and
where it chooses"?

11.
Why are we taking precious military and intelligence resources away
from tracking down those who did attack the United States  and
who may again attack the United States  and using them to invade
countries that have not attacked the United States?

12. Would an attack on Iraq not just confirm the Arab world's worst
suspicions about the US  and isn't this what bin Laden wanted?

13. How can Hussein be compared to Hitler when he has no navy or air
force, and now has an army 1/5 the size of twelve years ago, which
even then proved totally inept at defending the country?

14.
Is it not true that the constitutional power to declare war is exclusively
that of the Congress? Should presidents, contrary to the Constitution,
allow Congress to concur only when pressured by public opinion? Are
presidents permitted to rely on the UN for permission to go to war?

15.
Are you aware of a Pentagon report studying charges that thousands
of Kurds in one village were gassed by the Iraqis, which found no
conclusive evidence that Iraq was responsible, that Iran occupied
the very city involved, and that evidence indicated the type of gas
used was more likely controlled by Iran not Iraq?

16.
Is it not true that anywhere between 100,000 and 300,000 US soldiers
have suffered from Persian Gulf War syndrome from the first Gulf War,
and that thousands may have died?

17.
Are we prepared for possibly thousands of American casualties in a
war against a country that does not have the capacity to attack the
United States?

18.
Are we willing to bear the economic burden of a 100 billion dollar
war against Iraq, with oil prices expected to skyrocket and further
rattle an already shaky American economy? How about an estimated 30
years occupation of Iraq that some have deemed necessary to "build
democracy" there?

19.
Iraq’s alleged violations of UN resolutions are given as reason to
initiate an attack, yet is it not true that hundreds of UN Resolutions
have been ignored by various countries without penalty?

20.
Did former President Bush not cite the UN Resolution of 1990 as the
reason he could not march into Baghdad, while supporters of
a new attack assert that it is the very reason we can march
into Baghdad?

21.
Is it not true that, contrary to current claims, the no-fly zones
were set up by Britain and the United States without specific approval
from the United Nations?

22.
If we claim membership in the international community and conform
to its rules only when it pleases us, does this not serve to undermine
our position, directing animosity toward us by both friend and foe?

23.
How can our declared goal of bringing democracy to Iraq be believable
when we prop up dictators throughout the Middle East and support military
tyrants like Musharraf in Pakistan, who overthrew a democratically-elected
president?

24.
Are you familiar with the 1994 Senate Hearings that revealed the U.S.
knowingly supplied chemical and biological materials to Iraq during
the Iran-Iraq war and as late as 1992  including after
the alleged Iraqi gas attack on a Kurdish village?

25.
Did we not assist Saddam Hussein’s rise to power by supporting and
encouraging his invasion of Iran? Is it honest to criticize Saddam
now for his invasion of Iran, which at the time we actively supported?

26.
Is it not true that preventive war is synonymous with an act of aggression,
and has never been considered a moral or legitimate US policy?

27.
Why do the oil company executives strongly support this war if oil
is not the real reason we plan to take over Iraq?

28.
Why is it that those who never wore a uniform and are confident that
they won’t have to personally fight this war are more anxious for
this war than our generals?

29.
What is the moral argument for attacking a nation that has not initiated
aggression against us, and could not if it wanted?

30.
Where does the Constitution grant us permission to wage war for any
reason other than self-defense?

31.
Is it not true that a war against Iraq rejects the sentiments of the
time-honored Treaty of Westphalia, nearly 400 years ago, that countries
should never go into another for the purpose of regime change?

32.
Is it not true that the more civilized a society is, the less likely
disagreements will be settled by war?

33. Is it not true that since World War II Congress has not declared
war and  not coincidentally  we have not since then had
a clear-cut victory?

34.
Is it not true that Pakistan, especially through its intelligence
services, was an active supporter and key organizer of the Taliban?

35.
Why don't those who want war bring a formal declaration of war resolution
to the floor of Congress?

Ron
Paul, M.D., represents the 14th Congressional District of Texas in
the United States House of Representatives.